Microsoft fined $711m for breaking browser promise

Microsoft has been fined more than $700 million for failing to offer users a choice between different internet browsers in Europe.

The company was found to have breached its own 2009 commitment to introduce a pop-up screen offering users a choice of browser, rather than just Internet Explorer.

The pop-up was introduced as part of an earlier European Union competition case, but was dropped in a Windows 7 update in February 2011.

Microsoft says the omission was the result of a "technical error".

The European Commission, which acts as competition regulator across the 27-member European Union, said it found Microsoft broke its undertaking between May 2011 and July 2012.

The Commission said it takes such settlement commitments very seriously.

"Legally binding commitments reached in antitrust decisions play a very important role in our enforcement policy because they allow for rapid solutions to competition problems," competition commissioner Joaquin Almunia said in a statement.

"Of course, such decisions require strict compliance.

"A failure to comply is a very serious infringement that must be sanctioned accordingly."

Microsoft was fined 561 million euros ($711 million), taking the total cost of its regulatory troubles in Europe to 2.16 billion euros ($2.74 billion) over the past decade.